The First Vice-Chairman of the NDC for the Upper West Region has extolled the virtues of the sacked Regional Minister, Mahamud Khalid. Alhaji Issahaku Natonaa said the former Regional Minister did his best to unite the party but failed because he was dealing with people with sinister motives. Alhaji Natonaa believes the forces working against Mr Khalid were bent on seeing him sacked, that they frustrated all efforts to reconcile people of varying opinions in the party in the region. The Regional Vice-Chairman made these observation at a press conference in the regional capital, Wa. He repeated calls for the dismissal of the Deputy Regional Minister, Kale Caesar, accusing Mr Caesar of orchestrating Mr Khalid's sack in order that he (Caesar) will be appointed substantive minister. Mr Natonaa made scathing allegations against other members of the party in the region. He claimed they worked with Mr Caesar to get Mr Khalid out. We cannot independently verify some of the allegations. Read the full statement by Mr Natonaa below. PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE FIRST VICE CHAIRMAN OF NDC IN UPPER WEST REGION HELD AT THE REGIONAL PARTY HEADQUARTERS IN WA ON THE 19TH MAY 2010. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, this is the first time you are hearing from me since the removal of the Upper West Regional Minister Mahamud Khalid. This is mainly because I wanted to critically assess the developments and gather the facts before commenting. I have invited you here today to set the records straight on some distortions being carried out by a section of the NDC Upper West Regional Executives and one or two people from the national executives. I will also make a compelling case as to why Kale Caesar should not be allowed to stay in office as Deputy Upper West Regional Minister. I wish to again state that, people must not confuse issues of the region with those of Wa Central Constituency. Some elements in the Wa Central Constituency are responsible for all the mess so far. Wa Central alone is holding all the other constituencies gathered here to ransom. One of the members of the council of state Naa Seidu Braimah is regrettably the pivot of all the upheavals. It is his residence that all meetings of the deputy minister and his collaborators are held. His daughter is also married to Abubakar Mutiu Rahaman the regional youth organiser who also happens to be the grandson of the regional chairman Malik Issahaku. It was in Naa Seidu Braimah house the hooligans met before setting off to cease my car on the 10th of May 2010 at the old residency in Wa. It was again from Naa Seidu Braimah’s house the hooligans met before setting off to disrupt the tender process on the 11th of May. In an interview with Shamima Muslim on Citi FM’s Eye Witness news on Wednesday May 12, Mr. Boateng Gyan stated that the dismissed Upper West Regional Minister Mahmoud Khalid was given enough time to make peace with executives of the party but he failed to meet up the President’s expectation. May I say here and now that Mr Gyan was either uninformed or economical with the truth. Here are the facts; Mr Khalid went to the president on the 6th of April 2010, the same day that Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu led a section of the regional executives to present a petition to the president (the contents of which neither I nor any of the executives gathered here know). The chairman- Malik Issahaku never stepped foot in Wa until the 7th of May. Even then, Mr Khalid visited Accra thrice within the period and visited the chairman on all three occasions. When the chairman eventually came to Wa, the minister again went to his house on Saturday 8th May to welcome him back and proposed a one-on-one meeting to discuss events so far and see how we could chart a new course and work together. They agreed to meet but the Chairman failed to honour that meeting. He instead said he will meet the minister with the larger executive members the next day (Sunday, 9th May 2010). By 10:30am on Sunday, the minister’s checks revealed it was not the full complement of the regional executives but the chairman and his group that were led to the castle on the 6th of April by Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu. It was then that the minister suggested to the chairman to reconvene a proper executive meeting with a known agenda and invite him in. Later that afternoon, the Chairman called to arrange the one-on-one meeting he had earlier declined. I am told they met and discussed a range of issues including development projects and the way forward. On Monday (April 10), at about 4pm, I met with the entire regional executive members. We had very productive discussions. Just before we closed the meeting, the regional youth organiser, Mutiu Rahaman (son in law of Naa Seidu Braimah) went out while speaking on his cell phone. Minutes later, youth besieged the place calling on me (the regional vice chairman) to hand over the keys to a party pick up allocated to me. I gave the keys to the regional chairman who in turn gave it to the secretary. The youth vandalised the car and deflated all four tyres. A section of NDC youth supporting me also went to seize the car allocated to the regional secretary and handed it over to the police. These are the facts and we call on Yaw Gyan not to distort the issues in the name of party unity and cohesion. Here is why the deputy minister must go; First of all, the president’s own remarks during the swearing in of some deputy ministers that they should assist their bosses to discharge their duties not to do things that will undermine them have been violated by Kale Caesar. In this particular instance, we have ample evidence that the hooliganism of a section of NDC youth in the run up to the sacking of Mahamud Khalid were orchestrated by his deputy Kale Caesar. He should dare me on this and I will make his own voice available to everyone of you. Secondly, if Khalid Mahamud was removed from office to bring peace and sanity to the party as has been argued by both Asiedu Nketia, the NDC General Secretary and the National organiser, then, it is only logical that the Deputy Minister must go as well especially that he is the one the faction that orchestrated Khalid’s removal are proposing for the Minister’s successor. I am saying this because, as the first vice chairman of the party in the region, I was never consulted on any decisions arrived. No other executive from the other 9 constituencies in the region were consulted or even aware of this greedy move by the Deputy Minister and his collaborators within the regional executive. Kale Caesar has not been able to respond to or deny the allegations levelled against him so far. I urge the national executives to thread very cautiously on this matter since it has the potential of disturbing the peace this region enjoys. Last Friday, the concerned activists in the NDC locked up the regional party office. The youth organiser chose to blame it on the immediate family of Hon. Khalid and that they are just eleven people. Metro TV pictures of 18th May 2010 tell a different story- it showed a huge crowd that all Ghanaians can testify to and I will leave it to your judgement. Rahaman Khalid is the Wa central Constituency secretary and he was at this post before Mahamud Khalid became a minister, so what is Mutiu talking about? Hissam Khalid has been a long standing member and financier of the NDC party and activities- all youth groups can testify to this. What are we even talking about? Mutiu Rahaman (youth organiser) is the grandson of Malik Issahaku (regional chairman) and the son in law of Naa Seidu Braimah (member of the council of state). So please, let us stop this ‘family’ business and address the issues properly for the sake of peace. Ladies and Gentlemen, In conclusion, Mahamud Khalid made every effort but simply failed to get the co-operation of the chairman and his collaborators. I urge the President to appoint neutral people to the post of substantive Regional and Deputy Upper West Regional ministers so everybody can rally behind them to ensure victory in 2012. Thank you. Sign: ALHAJI ISSAHAKU NATONAA (First Vice Chairman, NDC, Upper West Region)